With the recent proliferation of wireless-enabled devices, companies are competing to develop and efficiently use new short and medium-range network access protocols and network access systems. For example, one such protocol is Bluetooth, which is an industry specification that describes how mobile phones, computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) can easily interconnect with each other and with home and business phones and computers using a short-range wireless connection. Bluetooth and similar protocols use access points spaced around a particular area—such as a business, an airport, a shopping mall, etc.—to provide connectivity between a network and a mobile device as the mobile device moves around the defined area. Bluetooth-enabled wireless devices, for example, can only transmit 10 meters, thereby requiring that Bluetooth-enabled access points to be spaced accordingly.
FIG. 1 illustrates an existing short/medium range wireless access system 100. In this system 100, three access points 110 A-110 C are connected to a network layer 115. Each access point is associated with a corresponding coverage area 112. Also connected to the network layer 115 is an external network 120 that includes the end point 125, which could be, for example, a Web server. The access points 110 in such a system 100 could operate according to Bluetooth or according to some other communication protocol.
Assuming that the access points 110 in FIG. 1 operate according to Bluetooth, the mobile device 130 is required to maintain a connection to one of the three access points 110 at all times if it is to communicate with the end point 125. Bluetooth, however, limits the number of mobile devices that can be actively connected to an access point at any given time. Thus, to service more mobile devices, a Bluetooth-enabled access point can place a mobile device in a non-active connection, or standby status, known as a Park mode in Bluetooth terms.
To be placed in the Park mode, the mobile device 130 first connects with an access point 110A and requests to be placed in the Park mode. When the mobile device 130 moves to a coverage area covered by a different access point, such as from point *A to point *B, present technology requires that the mobile device 130 establish a connection with the new access point, such as access point 110B associated with point *B, and that the mobile device 130 request the new access point 110B to place it in Park mode.
Forcing a mobile device 130 to request placement in Park mode each time that the mobile device 130 moves between coverage areas introduces several inefficiencies. For example, most mobile devices are power consumption sensitive. The extra communications required by continually requesting to be placed in Park mode can quickly drain the batteries of a mobile device 130. Further, the communication channels available to the typical access point are limited. By repeatedly requesting to be placed in Park mode, mobile devices unnecessarily use these limited communication channels and thereby block other mobile devices from communicating with the access point. Additionally, while the mobile device is requesting to be placed in Park mode by the new access point, the mobile device is not connected to the network and is thus not available for communication with the end point. In fact, the mobile device cannot even be located until the connection process with the new access point is completed.
Although present systems and methods are functional, they are not sufficiently satisfactory. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.